Welcome + Rules

[zompist]

I started the board in order to provide a place for people to--
* ask questions about Almea or to try out Almean languages
* learn about language and linguistics
* see each other's conlangs and help out with conlangs and conworlds

As you can see, three of the forums directly correspond to these goals.

The board has also developed into a community, which is chiefly expressed in Ephemera.

Conlangery will be pruned on a longer time scale— probably a couple of years. Don't use the ZBB as the only place you store your conlang/conworld info!

The old board had sub-boards primarily based on retention time. This will probably be revisited once we have enough posts for it to matter.

New members should read the For New Members sticky thread in Ephemera.

[zompist]

House Rules

1. Don't be a dick. This is probably different from other boards you're used to. Deal with it. Don't call each other names; don't get into long meta-discussions of each other's poor arguing skills; don't gang up on someone with unusual views; don't feel that you have to respond to things.

This isn't a public forum or a letters to the editor page. It's more like a party in my backyard. Bring your social skills.

• Don't abuse people directly. Don't call them idiots or tell them to shut up.
• Don't troll. If you're just trying to get a rise out of people, don't do that.
• Don't insult entire groups of people. That includes any ethnic group, sex, sexual preference, political party, religion, or irreligion.
  (This doesn't mean you can't have debates. But if you really can't grasp the distinction, you probably won't be here long.)
• Don't post NSFW (not safe for work) images. Images that are part of your conworlding, and links, are acceptable if you provide clear warning.

2. Don't eat the newcomers. One of the purposes of the board is to help people who are new to conlanging. Don't make them feel unwelcome. It's possible to be helpful without jumping all over them for their mistakes.

3. Don't claim divine authority. Bringing up your scriptures or your ideological heroes as if they're the final word is just foolish in an open forum, where other people don't consider them authoritative.

4. If people aren't reviewing your conlang-- did you comment on theirs? Attention isn't a one-way street. And don't get defensive if someone makes suggestions. You could learn something; but if you choose not to, well, it's your language, isn't it?

Getting our attention

I don't read everything on the board-- far from it. If a situation seems to require my attention, you can PM me or one of the mods. There is also a reporting feature which will bring a problem to all the mods' attention. On the other hand, don't get trigger-happy. Many problems aren't quite as bad as they seem-- wait till the adrenaline stops gushing before contacting me.

What mods/admins do and don't do

The mods and I try to follow a process if someone is disruptive: intervene in a thread to tone it down; PM to admonish people; one-day ban; longer ban; permaban. Sometimes the offense is so bad that we accelerate the process. Try not to be a test case for this.

Mods may delete posts or lock threads in order to calm things down.

Moderators should not alter posts (except, at their discretion, to add an NSFW warning). They shouldn't moderate arguments they're involved with. They shouldn't try to guide the discussion by use of mod powers, though of course they can participate as members. They should not be abusive when they intervene (as mods).

[zompist]

Miscellanous info

You can change your username and password yourself. Email me if you have trouble, preferably using the email associated with your account.

As a policy, I don't delete accounts just because someone is leaving. It's your responsibility to remove contact information if that's your concern. It's not mine to help you make dramatic gestures.

Sentbox and Outbox: This may cause some confusion... when you write a PM to someone, it appears in your Outbox till they read it, and then moves to your Sentbox. If you delete an item from the Outbox, the recipient will never see it.

[zompist]

Contacting me: I had to disable the contact form as it was filled up with spam.

Use my regular mail.